Sooraj Pancholi recalls terrible time in jail: ‘Slept on newspaper, was in the cell where they had put Kasab'

Hindustan Times

29-05-2025

Actor Sooraj Pancholi has shared his harrowing experience in Arthur Road Jail, where he was imprisoned in connection with Jiah Khan's suicide case. The actor revealed that he faced harsh treatment and was subjected to difficult conditions, including sleeping on newspapers during his time in solitary confinement. Also read: Zarina Wahab claims Sooraj Pancholi broke up with Jiah Khan a month before her death: 'She was depressed because of…'
In an interview with Hindi Rush, Sooraj looked back on the time he spent inside the jail.
Sooraj said, 'It's all hazy. I was just a 21-year-old boy at the time. I was sent to Arthur Road Jail and put in the 'anda cell' (solitary confinement). I was in the same cell where they had put Kasab (26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab). They treated me like I'd done a bomb blast."
The actor added, 'They put me where they put Kasab. I didn't even have a pillow; I'd sleep on newspapers. They treated me terribly, like I had committed some horrible crime. I am not even exaggerating. It was four or five years later that I understood what exactly I had been through. When it was happening, it all felt like a dream."
Jiah Khan, best known films like Nishabd and Ghajini, was found dead at her Mumbai home on June 3, 2013, by her mother. Later, her then-boyfriend, actor Sooraj Pancholi, was arrested on charges of abetment to suicide.
The case was based on a six-page note that detailed her troubled relationship with Sooraj. The alleged suicide note narrated Jiah's 'intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture' at the hands of Sooraj, which led her to take her own life, the central agency had said. Sooraj is the son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab.
In 2013, it was reported that the 21 days which Sooraj spent in jail took a serious toll on him. In 2023, Sooraj was acquitted of abetment to suicide charges in the case.
The actor made his debut with Athiya Shetty in 2015, and was also seen in seen in Time to Dance, opposite Isabelle Kaif, Katrina Kaif's sister. Sooraj was most recently seen in the historical action film Kesari Veer, directed by Prince Dhiman. The film also stars Suniel Shetty, Vivek Oberoi, Barkha Bisht, Aruna Irani, and Akanksha Sharma in key roles.